Cruickshanks, Eveline 1926–

PERSONAL:

Born December 1, 1926. Education: London University, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, Malet St., London WC1E 7HU, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, editor, educator, and historian. London University, Institute of Historical Research, London, England, lecturer, currently fellow. Jacobite Studies Trust (a charitable organization), chair.

WRITINGS:

Political Untouchables: The Tories and the '45, Holmes & Meier (New York, NY), 1979.

(Editor) Ideology and Conspiracy: Aspects of Jacobitism, 1689-1759, J. Donald (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1982.

(Author of introduction) Charles XII of Sweden: A Character and Two Poems, Lock's Press (Brisbane, Australia), 1983.

(Editor, with Jeremy Black) The Jacobite Challenge, J. Donald (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1988.

(Editor) By Force or by Default? The Revolution of 1688-1689, J. Donald (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1989.

(Editor, with Edward Corp) The Stuart Court in Exile and the Jacobites, Hambledon Press (Rio Grande, OH), 1995.

The Glorious Revolution, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2000.

(Editor) The Stuart Courts, Sutton Publishing (Stroud, Gloucestershire, England), 2000.

(Editor, with D.W. Hayton and Stuart Handley) The House of Commons, 1690-1715, History of Parliament Trust/Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Howard Erskine-Hill) The Atterbury Plot, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

Writer, historian, editor, and educator Eveline Cruickshanks is a lecturer and fellow of the Institute of Historical Research at London University. Her appointment made her one of only twelve fellows of the Institute. She is an expert on British Parliamentary history and on Jacobitism and Toryism in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, noted a biographer on the Institute of Historical Research Web site. She holds a Ph.D. from London University, and serves as chair of the Jacobite Studies Trust, a British registered charity.

Cruickshanks is the editor By Force or by Default? The Revolution of 1688-1689, a collection of essays that examine the reasons, events, and outcomes of the Glorious Revolution, during which William, Prince of Orange, invaded Britain and overthrew King James II. Cruickshanks contributes an essay examining loyalism as it existed in the localities, though it "does not venture far beyond particular and familiar instances, and does not lead to the development of any general argument," observed critic J.R. Jones, writing in the English Historical Review. Contributor David Zwicker "draws attention to the remarkable lack of any profound literary celebration or justification of the Revolution," Jones reported. John Miller contributes an essay on James II and Toleration, and Tim Harris explores the concept of London crowds during the Revolution. These two writers "present important and original conclusions," Jones remarked. The works by Miller and Harris, along with an essay by David Davies on William's navy, "justify the volume," Jones concluded.

The Stuart Court in Exile and the Jacobites is another volume edited by Cruickshanks, in collaboration with Edward Corp. The contributors address both the exiled Stuart court as well as the "political movement over which it presided," commented Edward Gregg in the English Historical Review. Several essayists provide "first-class contributions," Gregg stated, including John Childs, who writes on the aborted invasion of 1692, and Paul Monod, who contributes a piece on the Jacobite press and its encounters with English censorship. Other writers profile prominent figures of the day, including John, Lord Caryll; Lewis and Thomas Innes; Roger North; and Toby Bourke. Gregg found some of the essays to be convoluted and difficult to understand, even for a specialist. However, he commented favorably on the "number of distinguished contributors writing on diverse themes" throughout the book.

Cruickshanks again edited a volume on the Stuarts in The Stuart Courts. The book serves to "deepen early Stuart court studies and, most valuably of all, extend the analysis to the royal courts after 1660 and to those of Scotland, Ireland and St Germain as well as Whitehall and Windsor," commented Kevin Sharpe, writing in History Today. Sharpe observed that the works included in the book focus more on post-Restoration courts rather than on the courts of Charles I or Oliver Cromwell. Among the topics covered in the book's essays are the ever-changing representations of James II, how they were the creation of several contributors, and how their characteristics went beyond simple flattery or base propaganda. Other essayists write on topics such as the deeper characteristics of Restoration politics, the mechanisms of patronage and office, and the dubious influence of royal mistresses on policy and matters of patronage. In considering the effects of the essays as a whole, Sharpe concluded that "it appears to have been war and the development of the fiscal-military state that dismantled the Renaissance court."

In The Glorious Revolution, Cruickshanks explores in detail the revolution, its participants, its causes, and its outcome. She "sets out to cover far more than the Glorious Revolution—that is, she begins with the Restoration of Charles II and concludes with the Hanoverian succession, with two chapters dedicated to the impact of the Glorious Revolution on Scotland and Ireland respectively," observed Matthew P. Szromba on H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online. She analyzes how William of Orange conducted the invasion of Britain, and "explains the success of William's invasion by stressing the overwhelming size and superb training of the Dutch army, the lack of preparedness of James's forces, and the resolve of Englishmen to avoid repeating the bloodshed of the Civil Wars," Szromba remarked. Throughout, Cruickshanks "brings to light newer scholarship that properly positions the events of 1688-89 in their European context. With complementary readings, students of later Stuart history will prosper from Cruickshanks's thought-provoking revaluation of the Glorious Revolution," Szromba concluded.

Cruickshanks also served as the editor, with D.W. Hayton and Stuart Handley, of The House of Commons, 1690-1715, part of the Cambridge University Press "History of Parliament" series. The five-volume set provides a survey of the history of the House of Commons, reproductions of Commons journals, information on constituencies, and detailed, alphabetically arranged information on members of the House of Commons. "These monumental volumes make available an extraordinary mass of well-digested original research on a pivotal quarter century of England and Britain's parliamentary history," commented reviewer Julian Hoppitt, writing in the English Historical Review. "They will be read and plundered for many years to come by historians not only of politics, but also of culture, economy, education, ideas, religion and society. In their 5,000 pages is something for everyone," Hoppitt stated. The size and depth of the work should "ensure not just longevity but immortality, or something close to it," Hoppitt remarked.

In The Atterbury Plot, Cruickshanks and coauthor Howard Erskine-Hill "have reconstructed an important incident in both the history of Jacobitism and the early Hanoverian regime," noted Margaret Sankey in the Journal of British Studies. The authors revisit and reinterpret the efforts by Francis Atterbury, the bishop of Rochester, dean of Westminster, and a prominent Tory statesman, to spark an uprising and invasion of Britain intended to restore a Stuart to the throne of England. Cruickshanks and Erskine-Hill begin with a "historiographical introduction which invites the reader to see the plot to restore James III as a reasonable and realistic model for a restoration," commented Andrew Starkie in the Canadian Journal of History. Then the authors delve deeply into numerous aspects of the plot, its context, its participants, and its outcome. They "examine the military plans and resources of the Jacobite plotters and demonstrate the feasibility of the plot," Starkie recounted. They also report on the failure of the plot and how it was stopped through many illegal means, and how Atterbury and other participants were tried and received severe punishments for their role in the plot. Atterbury himself was convicted and exiled for life. Starkie concluded that "the details of the Atterbury plot serve here as a prism through which the political and cultural conflicts of early eighteenthcentury Britain are illuminated." A Contemporary Review contributor called the book "revisionist history at its best."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, June, 1990, review of The Jacobite Challenge, p. 818.

Canadian Journal of History, August, 1989, Paul Fritz, review of The Jacobite Challenge, p. 240; autumn, 2006, Andrew Starkie, review of The Atterbury Plot, p. 365.

Contemporary Review, March, 2005, review of The Atterbury Plot, p. 187.

English Historical Review, January, 1993, J.R. Jones, review of By Force or by Default? The Revolution of 1688-1689, p. 202; February, 1998, Edward Gregg, review of The Stuart Court in Exile andthe Jacobites, p. 191; November, 2003, Julian Hoppitt, review of The House of Commons, 1690-1715, p. 1335; February, 2006, Edward Gregg, review of The Atterbury Plot, p. 220.

History: The Journal of the Historical Association, February, 1990, W.A. Speck, review of The Jacobite Challenge, p. 134; October, 1990, W.A. Speck, review of By Force or by Default?, p. 495.

History Today, January, 1983, "Political Untouchables," p. 45, and review of Ideology and Conspiracy: Aspects of Jacobitism, 1689-1759, p. 46; March, 1983, review of Ideology and Conspiracy; February, 1989, H.T. Dickinson, review of The Jacobite Challenge, p. 52; December, 2000, Kevin Sharpe, "The Stuart Courts," review of The Stuart Court in Exile and the Jacobites, p. 59.

Journal of British Studies, April, 2006, Margaret Sankey, review of The Atterbury Plot, p. 411.

Parliamentary History, Volume 23, issue 3, 2004, Tim Harris, "The Augustan House of Commons," review of The House of Commons, 1690-1715, p. 375; Volume 24, issue 3, 2005, review of The Atterbury Plot, p. 392.

Reference & Research Book News, May, 1997, review of The Stuart Court in Exile and the Jacobites, p. 21; August, 2000, review of The Glorious Revolution, p. 27; February, 2005, review of The Atterbury Plot, p. 37.

Scottish Historical Review, October, 2004, Alexander Murdoch, review of The House of Commons, 1690-1715, p. 248; October, 2006, H.T. Dickinson, review of The Atterbury Plot, p. 358.

Times Literary Supplement, November 15, 2002, Adam Fox, "Why Be an MP?," review of The House of Commons, 1690-1715, p. 7; September 30, 2005, Julian Hoppitt, "The Bishop's Moves," review of The Atterbury Plot, p. 26.

ONLINE

Historical Association West Surrey Branch Web site,http://www.historicalassociationsurrey.com/ (May 22, 2008), biography of Eveline Cruickshanks.

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online,http://www.h-net.org/ (May 1, 2004), Robert Bucholz, review of The House of Commons, 1690-1715; (June 1, 2005), Murray G.H. Pittock, review of The Atterbury Plot; (May 22, 2008), Matthew P. Szromba, review of The Glorious Revolution.

Institute of Historical Research Web site,http://www.history.ac.uk/ (May 22, 2008), author profile.